Heavy Defeat For 2s

The two's turned up at Scroggie in a buoyant mood,sitting proudly on top of ESCA Div 4 and having won 5 games in a row. Drummond Trinity also arrived in confident mood and were eager to get a match played.

Our first challenge was to make sure the game went ahead. A considerable task lay in front of us as the newly installed side cover had more water in it than Leven swimming pool. After removing all 1000 litres from the side cover and pushing off the roller cover we discovered that the deck underneath was solid and in almost perfect condition. After a gargantuan effort we were at least going to get a match. Game started at 1:50 and was reduced to 35 overs per side.

A quick pep talk from myself to Mike about how important winning the toss would be was quickly forgotten as Mike once again LOST the toss and once again we were asked to bat. I now believe we are half way through the season and yet to win a toss. New tosser required I think....

Now to the serious stuff..... I mentioned in my report last week how important this double header would be and how we had to treasure our wickets when at the crease. It appears I just write these reports for my own self indulgence and no one reads it or no one pays any particular attention to what the content states.

I would say all but Scholsey gifted the opposition our wickets. A complete surrender(see below).......

Robbie gifted the opening bowler his easiest caught and bowled in his career.
Tam, gave up his wicket from the 1st ball off the change bowler. Again a caught and bowled.
Geordie(Good to see you) played a half hearted cut shot that was gobbled up by point. It must be said it was a decent low catch.
Waldo, after scoring 10 from the over played a lazy shot and was bowled.
Scuba, some very poor running between him and myself meant he was successfully run out at the 3rd opportunity they had of doing so.
Me, Poor shot off my legs was top edged to mid week.
Callum May, bowled playing across the line
Mike W, the 3rd caught and bowled of the match, mis-timing a pull shot from a half tracker.
Grant, needlessly trying to clear the ropes when he had only one ball of the over left. Caught at long mid off.

More people need to take responsibility when batting and not leave it to the next man. We also need to look to controlling the game from the outset, nudging the singles and putting away the bad ball (full toss's etc..) the later being something we have been failing to do for a number of years.

All in all it meant that we were bowled out for 117. We didn't even manage to bat 35 overs!!!!

On the positive side Scholsey batted incredibly well for his 36 and deserves credit for taking the attack to the opposition.

Defending 117 was always going to be a difficult task, especially since we knew that the opposition had some aggressive batsmen. Early wickets were a must.
Mike W & Grant opened the bowling. Mike W got the dangerous Jammy Nasir trapped LBW and we had our 1st wicket. This brought the leagues leading run scorer Nagi to the crease. Grant who was bowling with genuine pace seemed to have him trapped 3rd ball but the umpires finger did not raise. He stayed at the crease. The umpire may have known how important his wicket was as he started putting bat to ball and quickly took the game away from us. Nagi scored a quick fire 57 and by the time Geordie had clean bowled him the match was pretty much over.
Drummond knocked off the winning runs in the 22nd over for the loss of 4 wickets.

It was good to see Geordie back and he bowled well in his short spell, claiming 2 wickets. This along with Scholsey's batting were genuine positives from what was a deflating defeat.

However we do not have to wait long before we seek our revenge. The return match is next week. A win puts us back in the driving seat for the title. So lets get it done..........